60 



Opuntia Englemanii (Cactus). 



. A number of species of cactus, mainly of the genus opuntia, and 

 commonly called nopal, or prickly pear, are used as food for cattle and 

 sheep in the dry regions of Texas and westward, where the ordinary 

 forage plants fail. In the natural state cattle do not often touch it 

 unless driven by hunger, except while the new growth is young and 

 tender. Sheep eat it without preparation more readily than cattle, and 

 for them the plants are sometimes merely cut down, so as to be within 

 reach. More often the herder passes along and clips off a portion of 

 each flat joint, so that the sheep can enter their noses without coming 

 in contact with the spines. For cattle it is customary to singe off the 

 spines over a brisk blaze. 



Leonard A. Heil, San Antonio, Tex. : 



The cactus or prickly pear grows abundantly in nearly every section of southwest 

 Texas, often reaching a height of 10 or 13 feet. Ever since the settlement of the 

 country by the English, and probably years before, it has been used to supplement 

 grass in times of drought, but now it is being used with other feeds at all times, and 

 especially in the winter. Sheep do well upon it without water, l>here being sufficient 

 moisture in the leaves. The herder goes along with a short sword and clips the 

 points of the great leaves so that the sheep can insert its nose, when it readily eats 

 them entire. 



John C. Chesley, Hamilton, Hamilton County, central Texas : 



The prickly pear is used hereto a great extent. "We have a ranch in Stephens 

 County where we are now feeding the pear to over a hundred of our poorest cattle, 

 and they are doing well on it. It is fed at nearly all of the ranches of Stephens 

 County where they are feeding at all, and there are thousands of cattle being fed 

 this winter on prickly pear that are doing well and will come to grass in good shape 

 that otherwise would have died, or at least the larger part of them. 



